FTC shuts down worst ISP in the U.S.
By John Lister
The Federal Trade Commission has closed down an Internet service provider described today as “nefarious” and the “worst ISP in [the] U.S.” And that’s some of the nicer things people have said.
One site referred to Pricewert LLC as “a hive of scum and villainy.” That’s because, according to the FTC, the company didn’t just host sites and servers for criminals: it actively sought them out as customers, then did its utmost to protect them.
The FTC’s list of the content hosted by Pricewert is pretty much everything that’s bad online: “child pornography, spyware, viruses, trojan horses, phishing, botnet command and control servers, and pornography featuring violence, bestiality, and incest.”
The firm, which also trades as 3FN and APS Telecom, is accused of deliberately helping bot-herders – the people behind networks of infected and remotely controlled computers – to set up the networks. The FTC says it has instant message logs which show staff giving bot-herders technical advice on configurating such networks.
It’s important to note that the FTC’s action does constitute a legal verdict. After voting 4-0 to pursue a complaint, the Commission went to a California court and persuaded it to issue a temporary restraining order which shuts down the operation and freezes its assets. The next step in the legal process takes place on June 15 when the court will hold a preliminary hearing to decide whether to maintain the restraining order.
It’s uncertain whether criminal charges will be possible as the firm is registered in Belize and it’s believed most employees are based in Eastern Europe. The FTC action simply relates to the fact that the firm’s servers are based in the U.S.
A spokesman for Pricewert told Network World that the firm would fight the action in court. Max Christopher says the FTC is unfairly “blaming providers for bad customer actions” and claims the evidence against Pricewert is based on flawed translations from Russian to English.
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June 6th, 2009
I just dont understand what takes the feds so long to take action. By the time they fiddle fart around for a couple years these sort of operations have already netted millions. So the incentive remains for bad actors to keep up this kind of activity. Sad.